Nearly 48 years after the A-10 Thunderbolt II first arrived at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., the base started its long transition to a new mission set by retiring its first attack jet. Built in 1982, tail number 82-648 taxied out of the 354th Fighter ...
Air
The B-21 Raider was structured for a low production rate to make it less vulnerable to budget cuts, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said Feb. 8, in comments suggesting the bomber may never be produced at high rates.
An F-16 fighter pilot was recognized on Feb. 7 for saving his aircraft from a near-disastrous mishap two years ago.
The U.S. F-35 fleet, despite being considered a largely “mature” system, is still struggling to meet reliability, maintainability, and availability requirements, the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation’s annual 2023 report said. Improving processes for stealth repairs, improving maintenance processes and making more spare parts ...
The Air Force’s KC-46 tanker has been plagued by issues for years now, most of them related to its Remote Vision System and refueling boom. But a Pentagon report released late last month detailed problems with another key Pegasus feature: its Wing Aerial Refueling Pods.
The U.S. Air Force, Marines Corps, and Navy, along with four partner nations, flexed their airpower in an “elephant walk” at Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, to kick off Pacific Air Forces’ largest annual multilateral exercise, Cope North.
Wargames run by the Mitchell Institute show that moderately-priced and moderately-capable autonomous aircraft would be a huge benefit to the Air Force in a Pacific fight, imposing costs on an adversary, and enhancing the effectiveness of crewed combat aircraft.
After a month-long closure, the runway at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., has reopened and a B-1 bomber that crashed there has been cleared, a 28th Bomb Wing spokesman said Feb. 6. Meanwhile, some of the B-1s that left the base to train and operate elsewhere ...
The $4.5 billion program to upgrade Taiwan’s F-16s to the Block 70/72 configuration is complete, the U.S. Air Force said, bolstering that country's deterrent to China. Still underway is the provision of 66 new-build Block 70/72s.
